The saying goes, Everything’s Bigger in Texas. This year, something actually got smaller. NASCAR made the decision to race on the Circuit of the Americas’ (COTA) short circuit, as opposed to the longer Grand Prix Circuit. Instead of continuing up the esses through turn 6, now there is a short shoot left of turn 6, through 6A and out of turn 6B. This reduced lap times by nearly forty seconds. 

The race started with the usual chaos up the 133 foot climb up the hill leading to turn 1, nicknamed Big Red. Ross Chastain used a divebomb move up the inside and spun out Chase Elliott, who’s won NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award every year since 2018. Elliott was not happy on the radio, saying that he’d wreck Chastain if he was given the chance. 

Beyond the incident on the opening lap, the race ran mostly without incident, and a thriller finish concluded the race. Within the closing laps, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Kyle Busch, and Tyler Reddick were in a four-car dogfight for the win, with Bell coming out on top for the second consecutive week.

The only other notable incident was a crash between Austin Cindric and Ty Dillon. Cindric purposely wrecked Dillon on the front stretch after he forced Cindric off track in Turn 20. It seems there won’t be a penalty on Cindric, but that may change. 

William Byron is the current points leader, with 116 points. Ryan Blaney follows closely behind Byron, with 114, two points behind Byron. 

The next race is the Shriner’s Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway, on Sunday, 3/9 at 3:30 PM EST on FS1. Look for world-class driver Katherine Legge to make her NASCAR Cup Series debut, making her the first woman to race in the Cup Series since Danica Patrick took the green flag in the 2018 Daytona 500.